Episode 5: Sal Parra, Jr: Irrigation Efficiency Through Technology

In this episode we visit with Burford Ranch assistant manager Sal Parra, Jr. Parra grew up on the farm where he now lives and works alongside his father to manage 2,800 acres of almonds in western Fresno County.

Especially in a year like this one, finding ways to continually get “more crop per drop” is a top priority. Over the years, Burford Ranch has transitioned from flood irrigation to micro-sprinklers and drip. While increasing their water use efficiency over the past few decades, they’ve also been able to double their yields. The most recent step Parra took to improve his water use efficiency was to install dendrometers, devices that are mounted on the trees themselves to track water uptake by measuring changes in the trunk diameter.

“With the dendrometers, it's literally real time. It's telling you a better story of what that tree is going through. I think for me, that was really convincing and I thought,

‘Now this is a game changer.’” - Sal Parra Jr.

Parra shares that through increased monitoring and irrigation technology he now “can water by need and fertilize by need” rather than assumptions and calendar month. This allows him to tailor his inputs to the “actual variety and actual tree” and therefore greatly increase his efficiency for this and future crops. “The trees were just healthier all year.”

“I think what it really comes down to is that you're having good data to work off of. That can help you make microadjustments that over the long run give you savings. And so for us, that was huge, that was critical at a time where we really needed to go in that direction because of the pressure of not having the water.” - Sal Parra Jr.